Depoliticise public universities

Photo: STAR

In this globalised and competitive economies, a nation will be just withering away without highly skilled manpower and technological edge over others. The public universities need to be overhauled thoroughly to make these institutions effective for generating and enhancing knowledge to create skilled manpower. Public universities are on the verge of collapse, to say the least. The last BNP-Jamaat government made public universities subservient wholly to their party interest. Appointed VCs were from among nasty party cadres having serious corruption scandals (appeared in the national dailies against some of them). These party cadre VCs still persist in some universities. The Ministry of Education recently advertised for appointing new VCs in 7 public universities where the posts are now lying vacant. Why shouldn't the BNP-Jamaat cadre VCs be removed from all other public universities for the sake of fairness and to depoliticise all the universities before the proposed general elections on a plain field of politics. Why the BNP-Jamaat should get an upper hand in the public universities during the elections under a neutral caretaker government? Why public universities are by-passed in the reform agenda?